Loveland fracking vote moved to June 24

Councilors change election date based on withdrawal of court appeal

By Jessica Maher

Reporter-Herald Staff Writer

Posted:
04/16/2014 12:17:40 AM MDT

Proposed Sarner settlement agreement

A split Loveland City Council voted early Wednesday morning to move forward an election date for a fracking moratorium. In doing so, initiative opponent Larry Sarner agreed to drop his pending appeal of petition signatures to the Colorado Court of Appeals.

Last week, councilors decided on July 29 for the special election, though four councilors — Dave Clark, John Fogle, Troy Krenning and Hugh McKean — supported a June 24 date.

A discussion on the election date was added to the council's agenda on Monday, after the city heard from attorneys for Loveland resident Larry Sarner, whose lawsuit against the city led councilors last year to delay putting the Protect Our Loveland-submitted ballot initiative on the November ballot.

As part of the settlement offer — signed Tuesday by Sarner's Denver-based attorneys at Holsinger Law — Sarner will drop his pending appeals and cease litigation.

All the city had to do was change the special election date to June 24.

Through its representatives, law students at the University of Denver, POL countered with a verbal settlement proposal late Tuesday afternoon.

"Each party has a different request in terms of which date the election will be held on," acting city attorney Judy Schmidt told the council.

The nature of POL's settlement offer, as explained by Schmidt, was that if the city keeps the July 29 date, the group would drop its pending appeal against the city.

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After hours of discussion on each settlement proposal that took councilors past midnight, councilor Chauncey Taylor went back on his vote from last week and voted with Clark, Fogle, Krenning and McKean in setting the June 24 date.

"I think the settlement at hand gives us the best possibility of moving to an election with the least possibility of further litigation," Fogle said.

Councilors, who discussed the settlement offers past deadline, are up against the tightest of deadlines. The date by which the council is required to act on either election date — June 24 or July 29 — is May 6, and City Clerk Terry Andrews said she needs to order envelopes for the mail-in election Wednesday.

A June 24 election date is estimated to cost as much as $30,000 more than the July 29 date.

Changing the set date could also tangle the city in yet more legal battles, said councilor Joan Shaffer, who favored keeping the July 29 date.

"I am not willing to trade one lawsuit over another over a change of date," she said.

Councilors in favor of the June date have said that the electorate would benefit from it coinciding with the state's primary election and garner more participation. But unaffiliated voters or those not as interested in the primary election might not give it the same attention, Shaffer said.

Republicans in Loveland will have a full ballot for the June 24 primary, including choices for U.S. Senate, U.S. House and governor. Registered Democrats will not have the same high-profile choices.

"The reality is there is a one-party primary," Shaffer said. "If both parties had active primary candidates, the date would make more sense to me."

Councilors objected to entering a closed session to discuss the settlement proposals. Schmidt provided pros and cons of the settlement offer to councilors on Tuesday in a document that was not distributed to the public.

Councilor Phil Farley referred to the document in explaining his vote against the June 24 special election.

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